Polish unemployment rate falls to lowest level in 25 years

WARSAW, Poland – Polish government statistics show the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent in April, the lowest level in a quarter century.

Poland, like many other former communist countries, struggled with high unemployment in the 1990s and beyond, as inefficient factories collapsed in the difficult transition from a communist to a market economy.

The brighter jobs picture comes as wages are also rising. It's not clear if the better conditions will be enough to encourage the hundreds of thousands of Poles working abroad to return home.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo expressed her "huge satisfaction," calling it the lowest unemployment figure since 1992, and said her government's programs "are bringing the expected effects."

April's jobless rate is down 0.4 percentage points from March and 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier.